Documentation And Adrs

Documentation and ADRs

Overview

Good documentation reduces bus factor and future rework. ADRs are especially valuable for recording the reasons behind decisions that are not obvious from the code.

When to Use

• Significant architectural or design decisions
• Onboarding documentation
• Public or internal API docs
• When a decision is likely to be questioned later

ADR Lightweight Template

# ADR-NNN: Title

## Status
Proposed | Accepted | Deprecated | Superseded

## Context
What is the issue or force driving this decision?

## Decision
What is the change we are making?

## Consequences
What becomes easier or harder? What are the trade-offs?

Principles

• Document the why and the alternatives considered
• Keep docs close to the code when possible
• Prefer short, living documents over large outdated ones
• Update or supersede ADRs instead of leaving contradictions

Verification

• A new reader can understand the key decisions without talking to the original authors
• ADRs are linked from relevant code or architecture docs